Our eco-consumer blog Hippyshopper alerted us to this recent article in the The Guardian which reports on the issue of toxic destruction to the South American environment due to toxic run-off from the local denim factories. The Mexican city of Tehuacàn is the latest area to be affected by 700 clothes manufacturers (some of which are owned by large companies including Gap) who are contaminating the water.
"As well as being blue, it burns the seedlings and sterilises the earth," a local subsistence farmer said. When asked about the cause he added: "It's the fashion."
Guardian writer Jo Tuckman reports that the most destructive of these processes comes from the local laundries who use a specific chemical to distress and stonewash denim. "Jeans are sandpapered, marked with mechanical tools and faded with large quantities of potassium permanganate - a bleaching agent once commonly used to trigger illegal abortions."
Gap claims that they have a water treatment plant built on-site to regulate this problem. "The contamination is mainly the fault of the companies that act outside the law," said a spokesperson. "We are always getting inspected. Nobody inspects the others."
As Hippyshopper observes, with fairtrade and organic jeans much easier to get a hold of, we're not so restricted to purchasing purely from the big companies. For these alternatives check out Natural Collection, Hug and Howies.
More more exclusive images from Tehuacàn click here.